The Mythos Trials

Chapter Twenty-Four

Even before he lifted his gaze, Forneus knew.

Dozens of eyes, all with a preternatural glow, stared back at him and beyond, locking on to where Gwen stood behind him. Several others were focused on Phenex, shifting warily on clawed feet, low rumblings vibrating at the back of their throats, though none dared to attack.

At least, Forneus hoped they wouldn't. As they surged forward, their roars reaching a near-deafening cacophony, he was painfully reminded (as he often was at times like this) that hope and reality seldom crossed paths.

Phenex had become a living torch by this time, his whole body aflame as he rushed headlong into the crowd, throwing savage, wickedly-curved punches and unleashing spiralling gouts of fire left and right. Banishing the cutlass from his hand, Forneus readied his own defenses. Pouring as much energy into fortifying his barrier as he could, he infused it with a concentrated boost of something more for good measure: Reversal.

Though the power had returned to him upon restoring the seal of Osiris's Crown, he had been struggling with ever since. It seemed the longer one of his powers was away, the harder it was to utilize them beyond their basic functions. But something was different now. He could feel it in the way the energy hummed at the centre of his palm, the same resonance radiating off of the barrier and causing it to spit out bright green sparks.

Just as he'd hoped, Reversal worked, releasing a blast of static back at one of the demons when it unleased a volley of dark energy at him. Ether crackled and fizzled in the air, the counter-attack proving much stronger than the one that had led to it.

Just as I thought.

As the demon sank to the ground, panting and whimpering, one scorched and blackened arm cradled against his chest, Forneus allowed his gaze to swivel past him, seeking out Phenex in the fray. Though he couldn't see him, the constant flashes of red and orange lancing from the centre of the throng were a dead giveaway. When several demons exploded into ash, Forneus turned away, hazarding a backward glance.

What he saw almost made him lose his hold on the barrier. Reversal's energy faded at its core, only remaining at all because Forneus willed it. Not that it would have mattered. Two dozen more demons and monsters could have been coming at him, could have broken through his defenses and dragged him down to the ground, and it still wouldn't have changed a thing.

Sometime between approaching the boulder and now, Gwen's armour had dissipated, leaving her pallid and defenseless. Or at least, she would have been defenseless, if not for the purple aura encapsulating her, flowing around her like sheer silk.

It seemed Unrestrained had opted to make an appearance, and from the icy blue glow in Gwen's eyes, it was angry. No, "angry" wasn't the half of it. Gwen—or Unrestrained itself—was incensed.

Forneus's last thought was that he was glad Vajra's gift was on their side before Gwen hurtled past him.

In the next instant, everything had been thrown into carnage; the Barren Lands' cracked earth drinking up the ichor of the creatures Gwen felled like water. What bodies hadn't disintegrated upon death lay strewn across the ground at awkward angles, piled up in ways that had they still been alive, would have been agonizing.

Phenex emerged from an explosion of black ash, his lip curled in disgust as he wiped the trails of ichor and other, less pleasant demonic fluids from his jacket, supporting an unconscious Gwen with his left arm.

"Well, that was fun," he said. Then scooping her up in both arms, he made his way toward Forneus until they were only about a foot apart. "And quicker than expected. Unrestrained be damned, I've never seen Gwen move so fast."